B (2:53)

Once you realize your customers could be businesses, consumers or both, how did that shift your strategy? Did it change the way you approach things?

A (3:01)

I think it's just strategic use of our resources and a strategic use of our messaging. We certainly think the Roku experience as an operating system is delightful and easy and intuitive. We talk about how your mother in law can set it up herself. That's the example we always use. And so we certainly want our advertising customers to know that too because it really is a beautiful, elegant experience for advertising as well for watching content.

C (3:28)

So you've got such a big range of advertisers, From Big Fortune 500s to D2C Brands to B2B. How do you build campaigns or measurements that flex for either of them but still stay true to your own approach?

A (3:44)

Great. So I'll address that as a speaking to the advertising community part of my job. We certainly are on a journey to evolve our strategy to be more flexible and meet our customers where they want us to be, whether it being in their buying platforms of choice or providing optionality to a D2C customer by giving them a very kind of lightweight, intuitive self service platform like Roku Ads Manager. And so I think a lot of it from a measurement standpoint is doing some education. I think some of the questions were ground around CTV is still somewhat new, but I don't know if it's new, but it's certainly new in the eyes of performance. And so it's a lot of education about how we can enable customers to drive true outcomes using connected television. And so whether it's ad manager, unique measurement integrations, shoppable formats, we really try to address all of that.

C (4:36)

Now streaming's completely changed how people watch, from binging to co viewing and basically everything in between. How do cultural or data trends help shape what you're doing on the platform?

A (4:48)

Yeah, I mean it's been so interesting to see it change even since the pandemic. I think for a long time CTV was synonymous with SVOD or subscription video on demand. We're very much seeing that is not the case anymore. A majority of our households are using some form of AVOD or advertising video on demand. And so that trend coupled with live sports coming into CTV and streaming, it's really just driven a whole new slew of opportunities for advertising. And so off the back of that, that's more addressable, more accountable television because it is connected television. And so that's been fun from a education standpoint. It's been fun from a. How do we enable our platform to address that and also how do we educate our customers from a measurement standpoint.

B (5:36)

So what, so, so what's the ad experience like on Roku? You mentioned CTV and it sounds like there's a pretty wide mix of formats. Can you break a little more?

A (5:46)

I'd love to, because I think that's again where my role as a B2B marketer, it's of course helpful to inform our clients about our experiences. Then they might not have a Roku device or television. And so we think about our business in really two core buckets. We have the Roku experiences, which is our beautiful ui, so native home screen units. They're customized, they're elegant, but very user friendly. And we have some of our more kind of viral experiences like Roku City. We, which is fun and delightful. We're now doing brand integrations there. But then on the other side, we're also a very scaled publisher. So the Roku channel continues to climb Nielsen's gauge in terms of total TV content time. And so that is allowing us to be a very kind of open, interoperable, performant publisher as well with standard video that's available programmatically, it's available with unique measurement integrations. And that's really our ecosystem, like being an interoperable partner in the space.

C (6:43)

Roku City is that fun animated screensaver, very purple that a lot of people see on their TVs. Can you tell us a little bit about it and the kinds of brands you're partnering with there?

A (6:54)

Yeah, so this has just been something really fun that's taken off. So Roku City is our interactive screensaver and people love it. I don't know if you kind of see it every day, but it's of kind cute, it's fun, it grabs your attention. We see that it's tweeted about every 12 minutes. So it is a viral experience. And so much so that really our advertisers challenged us to think about it differently. And so now we have really a variety of advertisers kind of coming into Roku City. So I gave the Hellman's example. We had Taylor Swift in Roku City. And so it's really just a fun, unique, totally differentiated advertising experience. But we tie it all to the rest of our assets.

B (7:36)

I heard somebody say this Morning performance media is kind of the baseline. Now, with that in mind, how do you think about measuring engagement across all these different touch points that we've been talking about?

A (7:46)

Yeah, I mean, so much of my job on the measurement side of the house is education. And I think the challenge is that performance is in the eye of the beholder. And CTV is still bought via very different group of Personas, from a kind of legacy television buyer all the way to someone that had been in social API partners and dipping their toe into ctv. And so performance is required, but it's really a matter of educating them on what that means to them and supporting them in their efforts. But what's great about CTV is its big, beautiful television, but with all the addressability and accountability of digital.

B (8:23)

And on that point, though, what is it that linear TV buyers still don't quite get about ctv?

A (8:29)

I think it's the ecosystem aspect of it all. I think television in the past was measured by a couple companies with a couple KPIs or just reach, you know, and so I think this is where CTV has really unlocked, really turnkey, always on, easy to optimize measurement. That's very exciting.

C (8:48)

So one thing we like to do on the show is pull our takeaways from the big campaigns. Are there any KPIs or success stories from the campaigns running on Roku that stand out to you? Yeah.

A (9:00)

So I think what's been fun is we see that we have opportunities for really kind of all verticals. Obviously, Roku was born out of the media and entertainment industry, but we've expanded there. And so we really do have kind of a playbook for each vertical. But auto specifically comes to mind, which is a really exciting one. You don't really think of performance and auto on tv, but we've built kind of beautiful experiences, like showrooms where you can configure cars, sign up for test drives. And so I think we've really changed the narrative there in terms of driving actions for that vertical. All in a very kind of big, beautiful, elegant canvas.

B (9:37)

Are there any other kind of surprises from your takeaways in terms of like, oh, that's popping. I never expected that.

A (9:44)

So, for me, I don't carry a wallet. Right. My phone is my wallet. And I think if you told me that five years ago, I would have never believed you. Similarly, I don't think anyone thought they'd be shopping with their television. That happens every day on our platform. And I think it's because of clients testing with us. But also it comes back to us as an operating system and really our remote, it's a few buttons. It's really easy. We have a direct relationship with our customers from a billing perspective. And so the same way Apple pay is just so easy. Now you can shop from your tv, which again, like seems insane, but maybe we'll be here in a couple years and we'll see. So much kind of direct shopping from televisions.

C (10:23)

What about the interest from B2B brands? It just feels like that sector is really exploding across all categories, but CTV particularly.

A (10:33)

Yeah, I mean so much of my job as a B2B marketer is a lot of education and a lot of really so much of our reframing away from being a walled garden to more of an open collaborative partner. And so, so much of it is doing. We talked in the press about our change away from doing a big new front event. We did more kind of small customized dinners instead just to make sure there is a very direct touch point, but also specifically catered to each client's needs. And so I think that's been more of our approach of making sure we do kind of pointed conversations to address the nuances and needs of each customer.

C (11:12)

And how was that new approach for you this year? I know a lot of brands are doing things a bit differently at the Friends. How did it go on your side?

A (11:21)

I think for us it's knowing the value of us as the operating system and having great content, but not being kind of these content giants that have millions and millions and millions of dollars to spend on content and so they should do a big show for us. We drive traffic to the big show. And so I think it was more about, yes, of course, talking about our amazing content and brand integrations there, but also acknowledging the integrations that each customer wanted, the platforms each customer wanted, and what we're doing for each of them in a really kind of catered way versus such a one to many message.

B (11:57)

You mentioned content earlier. Are you seeing any particular trends now? Anything that's really driving interest from certain categories or marketers?

A (12:05)

Yeah, so we have our Roku originals and we do very well in kind of holiday and home, as you can expect. But I think this year in Cannes you won't be in a meeting like this without talking about sports. And so we have sports rights. Yes, but again, the value of the operating system. We've built sports zones to help make sport discoverable and findable. I always use the example of my husband's great uncle Joe. Die hard Yankees fan, can't find a Yankees game because it might be on four different places in five days. And so how can Roku as an operating system help in that regard? And so I think Roku is invested a ton in our infrastructure of driving curation of sports. But also we're very invested in what we call challenger sports. So National Women's Soccer league, volleyball, stuff like that, where they have really these die hard fan bases and they just want to find it. We're the destination to help them.

B (13:01)

We keep hearing it's not just about mass reach anymore, it's really about how well you know the audience. And the better you understand them, the better this whole thing works for both the platform and the advertiser. How do you see that playing out right now?

A (13:13)

Yeah, they're loyal, they're die hard, they're big spenders sometimes. And so you want to kind of associate with yourself with such a kind of amazing loyal fan base that's just so passionate about the sport.

C (13:27)

So we have some quick questions for you now. So first of all, you've led both creative and analytical teams. What is one timeless truth about great advertising that cuts across both sides?

A (13:41)

First of all, it's a very fun aspect of my job having both kind of the marketing team and the measurement and analytics team. Two very different Personas, but brilliant in their own ways. And so, so much of my focus since being here is being making sure they're working together versus kind of two ships in the night with their own functions. Because we certainly have such amazing data. So we should use that to speak to the marketplace in a smart way. And so I think that's been really fun. I think they're getting to know the other side of the house and like the creative thinkers versus the analytical thinkers like me. Pushing them to work together has been very fun. And I think with that in mind, like a data informed approach is key. And so that's where that's what really drew me to Roku, was that opportunity of just this amazing data set that we have that we can use to optimize, but also to tell our story in a more elegant way.

B (14:33)

Now, since you joined Roku, is there a favorite data point or piece of feedback that's really stuck with you?

A (14:38)

Yeah, well, I think what's interesting about my job is I should have been informing people like myself about the value of Roku. Like before kind of the process started of being recruited, I had a pretty antiquated view of the Roku advertising offering. So that's something that in getting here and in going through that process, I learned so much more. I Think my favorite might be that any given month we see a user come through our front door about 25 days a month. And so that is an advertising opportunity to message our amazing footprint. But we see that on average like an individual app is like seven, maybe eight times a month. And so if you think about that, like the reach potential, but also just the consumer habit of using our devices and seeing the messaging from our brands I think is so compelling and something that really we're massive as it relates to our OS and footprint. And so we've designed these beautiful experiences to really account for that.

C (15:36)

Now Roku really helped pioneer the modern CTV ad experience. Is there a moment that's made you step back and think, wow, look how far the medium end your team really has come?

A (15:49)

I think the fact that the super bowl was really such a success story for streaming, I think we never thought the super bowl would be like at that level, but it was streamed and it really streamable and really without a hitch. Like I think we've seen some live streaming events and there were some issues. Like I thought it was very well done, we were happy to support it. We drove some amazing traffic to Tubi. And so I just think 10 years ago we never thought that would be the case. And so that's just been a fun thing to think about. That and the Olympics and the Olympic zone that we built, just really elegant experiences and just changing television has been fun.

B (16:32)

And that's it for this edition of the Big Impression.

C (16:34)

This show is produced by Molten Heart. Our theme is by Love and Caliber and our associate producer is Sydney Cairns.

A (16:41)

And remember, a data informed approach is key. And so that's where that's what really drew me to Roku.

B (16:47)

I'm Damien. And I'm Elise and we'll see you next time.